For secretary of state: Not Rice

President Obama's defense of Susan Rice, messenger of the administration's anti-Muslim-video cover story for the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, cannot salvage a career of embarrassments before and during Ms. Rice's 2009 appointment as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

What's “outrageous,” as Mr. Obama characterized recent attacks on Ms. Rice, is considering her as the next secretary of State.

This would be the same Rice who, as an assistant secretary of State during the Clinton administration, reportedly flipped a South Side salute at Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to Turtle Bay, during a meeting with senior staff, reminds Dana Milbank of The Washington Post.

But Rice apparently is “popular” with international colleagues at the United Nations — which is no recommendation of U.S. foreign policy prowess.

Slow to criticize, Rice remained silent when the U.N. elected Iran to its women's rights committee and named Libya to its Israel-bashing Human Rights Committee.

And while she chastises the Bush administration's U.N. policies, Rice has been able to pass only one resolution on Iran and its nuclear saber-rattling; the Bush team passed five, notes Richard Grenell, who has served as a spokesman for four U.S. ambassadors to the U.N.

“Whether the issue is Sudan, Egypt, North Korea, Israel or Rwanda, Rice has been either missing in action or unable to deliver a quick and effective resolution,” Mr. Grenell says.

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